LONDON (BNS): British defence major BAE Systems has announced that one of its Eurofighter Typhoon test aircraft has successfully completed the maiden live test firing of the Brimstone air-to-surface precision strike missile.

"The first live firing of MBDA's Brimstone air-to-surface missile from a Eurofighter Typhoon has been successfully completed as part of ongoing development work to significantly upgrade the capability of the aircraft," BAE Systems said in a statement on July 14.

The P3E package forms part of Project Centurion – the programme to ensure a smooth transition of Tornado GR4 capabilities on to Typhoon fighter for the Royal Air Force (RAF).

The UK's IPA (Instrumented Production Aircraft) 6 Typhoon conducted the firing with support from the UK Ministry of Defence, MBDA, QinetiQ, Eurofighter GmbH and the Eurofighter Partner Companies – Airbus and Leonardo.

It was designed to test the separation of the low-collateral, high-precision Brimstone weapon when it is released.

In total, nine firings will take place to expand the launch and range capabilities, BAE Systems said.

The initial firing follows completion of a series of around 40 flight trials earlier this year, some of them conducted alongside pilots from the Royal Air Force's 41(R) Squadron - the Test and Evaluation Squadron - in a Combined Test Team approach, it said.

The successful trial follows completion earlier this year of the flight trials programme for the MBDA Storm Shadow deep strike air-to-surface weapon and the MBDA Meteor 'beyond visual range' air-to-air missile.

Operational testing and evaluation of those capabilities is currently ongoing with the Royal Air Force ahead of entry into service in 2018.